The Homestead Strike of 1892: causes, violence, and public response

Homestead Strike

Issues Surrounding the Homestead Strike

The Homestead Strike of 1892 represented one of the bloodiest encounters between Union members and industrial officials in history. The strike revolves around a Carnegie steel mill located in Homestead, Pennsylvania. The entire town of Homestead rose to support the Carnegie Steel Mill, and the steel mill was the lifeblood of the town. Soon, class divisions would become the cause of one of the most violent union strikes in history. This essay will explore the issues surrounding the Homestead Strike including its causes and effects.

Causes of the Homestead Strike

After the Civil War, American ingenuity was at its finest and America became a center for growth and industry. For those that built the industrial institutions that would make the country strong, a particularly privileged lifestyle arose. The small percentage that was able to enjoy this lifestyle hardly stopped to realize that it came at a high cost. The factories needed workers and life for the workers that formed the backbone of these corporations was precarious and fragile.

Workers in the steel mill performed highly dangerous work and many lost their lives due to poor safety conditions within the factories. Steel mills were necessary for the many large scale construction projects that were underway from coast to coast. Steel was needed for buildings, railways, bridges, and every inch of the infrastructure that America needed to grow and thrive. The workers that made the beams and parts were subjected to dirty, hot, backbreaking labor, day in and day out.

They often worked long shifts for very little pay. Workers only made $2.25 and some even less, working under intolerable conditions. They had no time for family and not enough money to feed themselves or their families. These were the conditions that led to the formation of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA). This union represented the workers and fought for fair wages and better working conditions ("Homestead and its Perilous Trades - Impressions of a Visit"). On July 6 of 1892 the situation came to a boiling point. Workers formed a massive strike. Carnegie and Pinkerton Security tried to break the strike. Many were killed on both sides by the time the incident was over.

Labor Unions After the Strike

After the Homestead Strike labor unions became associated with violence. This is largely due to coverage by the media. After Homestead, labor unions experienced declining membership. Any further strikes were quickly squashed, violently if need be to keep the violence from spreading into another Homestead incident (Brody, 1969). Several other strikes at the Homestead plant led to the plant being shut down, and a final blow to the effort of unionization. Other Carnegie steel milled remained in existence and continued to operate, but they remained nonunion for close to 40 years (Brody, 1969).

Union breaking became a spreading trend throughout the Midwest and later to other parts the country. Many unions, began to see the detrimental ends of other unions and withdrew recognition without a fight. Strikes became unproductive and unable to achieve the intended purpose of the unions. Unions found that they had to take more diplomatic tactics if they wished to succeed in accomplishing their goals.

Public criticism of working conditions brought perhaps greater change in terms of working conditions and fair pay than the methods utilize by unions in the early days of the industrial age. Unions brought the rights of plant owners and the rights of workers to the forefront. It was recognized that plant owners had a right to make a profit, but it was also recognized that they did not have the right to treat their workers as beasts of burden. Public outcry and opinion was perhaps the great a shaper of better working conditions in American factories after the Homestead Strike.